It was announced that Two For Joy directed by Tom Beard and starring Daniel Mays, Billie Piper, Sam Morton, and others will have its UK premiere at the Edinburgh Film Fest on 23 & 24 June as part of the Best of British Strand.

A powerful coming-of-age drama about a sister and younger brother who must care for their troubled mother (a moving performance by Samantha Morton) as their relationship reaches critical mass. The debut feature of writer-director Tom Beard (director of music videos for FKA twigs and Florence and the Machine), Two for Joy looks at Britain through the eyes of a family in crisis and deals with issues of mental illness, marginalised communities and national identity. Also stars Billie Piper, Daniel Mays, and Bella Ramsey (Game of Thrones).

UK actress Billie Piper is set to make her feature directorial debut with “anti-rom-com” Rare Beasts. Western Edge Pictures (WEP), whose credits include Alice Lowe’s Prevenge and Vaughan Sivell’s forthcoming Pistorius, will produce.

Piper has written the script for Rare Beasts and she will also star as Mandy, a career-driven single mother, who falls in love with the charming, traditionalist Paul. Western Edge said: “It’s a dark and funny anti-rom-com with a theatrical edge. It’s also a fascinatingly personal comment on the price of modern feminism.”

The film will shoot in London and Spain in September. Sivell produces for Western Edge, in association with 42 (Welcome To The Punch, Watership Down). Executive producers are Sivell, Franki Goodwin, Mike Rattenbury and Will Kane for Western Edge and Josh Varney and Ben Pugh for 42.

The film is being developed by Western Edge Pictures for the Gennaker Group, which also financed Western Edge titles Prevenge and Mr Calzaghe. Gennaker Group have guaranteed cornerstone finance in Rare Beasts.

WEP and Gennaker CEO Vaughan Sivell said: “We’re massively excited about bringing Billie’s wickedly funny and incisive film to the screen. Her relevance and modernity are only outweighed by her charm, talent and riotous sense of fun.”

Piper added: “I have been looking for a home for this film for a long time now, and I’ve definitely found it with Vaughan and WEP. I’m so excited to shoot this year.”

Piper’s credits include Doctor Who, Penny Dreadful and The Secret Diary Of A Call Girl. She also recently earned an Olivier Award for her role in Yerma at the Young Vic, which then transferred Off Broadway.

Western Edge, based in London and Wales, has a slate that also includes Sivell’s documentary Pistorius (now in the final stage of post), as well as Alice Lowe’s next film Time Stalker.

Billie Piper and the cast of Yerma have kick-started Equity’s Safe Space campaign, which was developed following accusations of harassment in the theatre industry.

The campaign is aimed at encouraging members “to have the confidence to challenge inappropriate behaviour and to report it knowing that the union is always there for them”.

As part of the campaign, posters have been distributed that highlight the union’s harassment helpline.

In addition, Equity is calling for a specially created statement to be read out at the beginning of each new rehearsal period, which underpins a company’s commitment to create spaces “free of bullying and harassment”.

The statement reads: “Every single one of us working on this project is entitled to work in a safe space: a space free of fear, a space free of bullying and harassment of any kind. We will work together honouring our differences and celebrating the gifts we each bring to the table.”

It continues: “We will treat one another with politeness and respect at all times and, if we are subjected to or witness bullying and harassment, we will speak out knowing that our voices will be heard and we will be taken seriously. Together we can create a safe space.”

Yerma has recently opened in New York, but had been rehearsing in London.

LONDON — Each night, after performing “Yerma,” Billie Piper would face the emotional wreckage she’d caused, playing a woman driven insane by her inability to conceive a child.

“People would come over, in various states of trauma, depending on how it had affected them personally,” she said, recalling the two sold-out runs of the play, a modern version of Federico García Lorca’s 1934 tragedy adapted by Simon Stone. “Some people didn’t even really say anything, they just wanted to be close to us — they wanted to somehow physically connect.”

I certainly had a hard time leaving the Young Vic the night I saw the play, my way blocked by women in tears. And if all this sounds melodramatic, it was echoed in the visceral language British critics used to discuss Ms. Piper’s performance: “shatteringly powerful,” “earth-quaking,” “heart-rending.”

It’s fair to say, then, that “Yerma” tapped into contemporary anxieties about the impossibility of having it all. “This is a conversation everybody seems to be having at the moment,” Ms. Piper, 35, said over coffee in East London, as she prepared to revive the role at the Park Avenue Armory this month, making her New York theater debut. “It feels very, very topical.”

Billie appeared on the Chris Evans Breakfast show this morning, talking about Collateral and some exciting new projects. Including her writing & directorial debut with ‘Rare Beasts’ & a new TV show with Lucy Prebbles, which will be filming late this year/early next year. You can listen to the full show HERE!

Current Projects

Beast (2018)
Billie as Grace
Status: Post-Production
Genre: Short, Drama
A gothic fairytale following three generations of women struggling with the aftermath of a divorce.

Two For Joy (2018)
Billie as Lillah
Status: Post-Production
Genre: Drama
A coming-of-age drama following a daughter, her mother and her wayward younger brother as their relationship reaches critical mass.

Eternal Beauty (2018/2019)
Billie as Nicola
Status: Post-Production
Genre: Comedy, Drama
When June (Sally Hawkins) is rejected by life, she spirals into a chaotic, schizophrenic world, where love and normality colldie with humorous consequences.

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